Yarning, not boardrooms, best way to build indigenous business relations

Nyungar-Nyiyaparli-Yamatji woman Emma Garlett is at the start of her business ownership journey, having launched Garlett Group in 2023.

Before that, Ms Garlett’s career spanned industrial, legal, academic, and creative sectors. 

Among her interests is capacity building, primarily in relationships between and within businesses. 

Respect and reciprocity are core to engagement with Indigenous businesses, according to Ms Garlett. 

The best way to achieve that, she said, was to do away with traditional meetings and hierarchies. 

“The main difference in best-practice First Nations engagement is engaging often, engaging early, listening and making sure that you use yarning as a methodology,” Ms Garlett said. 

“When you are working with First Nations people, you need to have adequate time to listen and to understand. 

“Yarning [is] conducted in a circle where everyone is sitting down … at the same level. 

“[It] is a culturally safe space, because you can allow for respect, for discussion and exchange between people.” 

That conversational style of storytelling builds trust over time and helps stakeholders understand needs and aspirations. 

Ms Garlett points out a desire to build trust and non-transactional relationships is not a trait unique to Indigenous people. 

Garlett Group started in Carnarvon offering cultural awareness training and business services such as strategic planning. 

Today, it is based in Perth and focuses on providing cultural capability advice to government clients and helping Aboriginal people build capacity. 

“We do that through five different service areas: education and training; sustainability services; Indigenous engagement and inclusion; strategic communications; and digital solutions,” Ms Garlett said.

“The reason we have various service offerings is because a lot of them are complementary to each other … you need to approach projects holistically. 

“The vision of Garlett Group is to have long-term impact.” 

Training and strategic planning remain central to that objective. 

Ms Garlett said it was important for all businesses to walk in two worlds, which meant understanding Indigenous culture and business processes. 

Acknowledging the past was an important part of that business impact picture, Ms Garlett said. 

“If I can help one person understand the history of what happened to Aboriginal people in Australia and help to change their perspective and worldview when they see a First Nations person in Perth, and if that has a behavioural change for them, to help them be more inclusive, then I’ve done my job,” she said. 

“If you can impact one person, that change will have flow-on effects to their sphere of influence and the work they’re doing.”